"Over the Rainbow" is the twentieth episode of the second season of Angel and the forty-second episode overall. Written by Mere Smith and directed by Fred Keller, it was originally broadcast on May 8, 2001 on the WB network.

Cordelia Chase is inadvertently sucked into a portal and ends up in Pylea, the Host's former dimension. She is quickly enslaved, but ultimately she is thought to be cursed due to her visions. Back in Los Angeles, Angel, Wesley and Lorne try to use every available means to try to get to Pylea to rescue Cordelia, while Gunn visits his old street gang and finds them alienated from him over leaving them to fend for themselves against the forces of darkness.

Contents

Synopsis

Cordelia finds herself in a new dimension, where she is chased down by a green demon who declares her a "cow", or human slave. She is sold at the market, and her demon owner forces her into a collar that can be used to shock her when she doesn't obey. As she later mucks out the stables, wondering aloud if she can remove the collar, a runaway slave warns her through a hole in a wall that she shouldn't bother fighting. Cordelia is unable to see that the woman is Fred from her vision, crazy after all her years in Pylea. Before any more information can be exchanged, Fred is caught and taken away. Later, Cordelia follows her owner, carrying purchases from the market, until a vision causes her to fall and drop everything. She reveals she saw a villager being attacked by a Drokken in her vision, and a crowd gathers and declares her to be cursed. Cordelia is brought before Constable Narwek and explains she has precognitive visions.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, the group realizes Cordelia has been sucked into the Host's home dimension of Pylea, which the Host says he was glad to leave and will never go back to. Caritas, the bar he runs, was once the abandoned building where the portal from Pylea opened onto. Angel, desperate to save Cordelia, reads from the book to reopen the portal, but it fails to open; Wesley's research discovers that the portal can only open once in awhile in any given spot, and cannot reopen there again until a considerable time has passed, so the Caritas portal will not be available for them to use. The Host seeks help from a psychic friend in order to find a hot spot, but she won't provide the information until he agrees to go with the others to finish his business in Pylea. Wesley finds out that the portal scatters multiple people who go through, causing him and Angel to realize that Cordelia won't have arrived in Pylea with Landok. Gavin Park, a lawyer from Wolfram & Hart, appears at the hotel with a colleague and informs Angel that the law firm plans to buy the hotel when the current lease expires. Angel, uninterested in dealing with lawyers for the moment, vamps out and Gavin takes his leave, but not before promising to make Angel's life difficult. Angel leaves a message on an answering machine with key information in case they don't make it back from Pylea.

Cordelia after arrival in Pylea

Angel pulls his car up to the gate of Paramount Studios, following the Host's information that it is a psychic hot spot. Wesley has discerned that if the gang use the car to travel through the portal it should allow them to stay together. Although Gunn had earlier stated that George's death made him realize he's needed in this dimension, Angel's distressing phone message persuades him to join the mission. Wesley reads from the book, and with final good-byes to L.A., Angel drives his car through the portal. The book falls onto the sidewalk as the car vanishes. As the car arrives in daytime Pylea, Angel rushes to cover himself before realizing that the two suns are not fatal to vampires. Happy and amazed, Angel goes off to gather branches to hide the car while enjoying the rare opportunity to be in sunlight. After covering the car, the guys realize that the book is gone and Lorne is horrified. Angel points out that they can't return home without Cordelia anyway, so finding another way to open a portal will have to wait until after she's rescued.

Meanwhile, Cordelia is taken before a tribunal and tested to see if she is afflicted with a curse. They test her using hot pokers and sharp needles. They unanimously decide that she is indeed cursed and take her away.

In town, the Host advises Wesley, Angel, and Gunn to stay to the shadows, as humans are treated as slaves. The Host tries to get help from an old friend but is met with a hostile reception, as the Host is considered to have deserted his people. Chased by villagers, the gang is eventually caught and tied up in the middle of town. They are taken to a dungeon and chained up. They hear about Cordelia and fear for her life. They are taken to be sentenced to death by the Monarch. They begin to struggle to escape, but discover that the Monarch is a very contented looking Cordelia wearing a sequinned bikini and many jewels.

Continuity

Appearances

Locations

Behind the Scenes

Broadcast

The first few moments of the opening sequence of the crew searching Caritas for Cordelia from the broadcast version is missing on the DVD.

Pop Culture References

This and the following two episodes, "Through the Looking Glass" and "There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb", all reference children's stories in which the protagonist travels from their world into a wondrous, mystical one; "Over the Rainbow" and "There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb" both reference The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, and Through The Looking Glass references the book of the same name by Lewis Carroll (not to be confused with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland). Cordelia also taps her heels three times in an attempt to return home.